FINISHING THE GAME — ** — Roger Fan, Sung Kang, McCaleb Burnett; not rated, probable R (profanity, vulgarity, violence, drugs, nudity, slurs, brief sex)
The concept behind "Finishing the Game" is hardly original. One of the first Bruce Lee spoofs was the 1982 Johnny Yune vehicle "They Call Me Bruce?"
And as sketchy as that earlier film was, this mockumentary is even sketchier, filled with poor-taste sexual humor and toothless movie-business parodies.
Still, it is miles better than 2002's "Kung Pao: Enter the Fist," another martial-arts spoof. At least "Finishing the Game" offers a couple of chuckles ... even if they are mostly the guilty kind.
The movie's title is a reference to "Game of Death," the feature-film project Lee was working on when he died in 1973. In this what-if? tale, greedy producers have opted to complete the film, and are auditioning actors to take the late actor's place (which actually happened in real life).
The hopefuls include Breeze Loo (Roger Fan), an arrogant martial-arts star who doesn't do his own stunts; Tarrick Tyler (McCaleb Burnett), who claims to be half-Asian; and television actor Troy Poon (Dustin Nguyen). But the dark horse may be newcomer Colgate Kim (Sung Kang), whose girlfriend/manager Saraghina (Monique Curnen) is carefully steering his career — or accidentally sabotaging it, depending on whom you ask.
Co-screenwriter/director Justin Lin reunites here with a few cast members from his 2002 art-house hit, "Better Luck Tomorrow," including Fan and Kang. Unfortunately, they all deserve better material than this.
The film misses more comic targets than it hits. A bit about squabbles between the first-time director (Jake Sandvig) and the casting director (Meredith Scott Lynn) is particularly unfunny.
And the characters are all pretty unlikable, save maybe Nguyen's hapless Troy, who is consigned to sidekick roles.
"Finishing the Game" is not rated but would probably receive an R for strong sexual language, references and humor (profanity, crude slang terms and other suggestive talk), martial-arts violence (mostly done for laughs), drug references, full male and female nudity, slurs based on race and ethnicity, and brief sexual contact. Running time: 84 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com